For this year’s English class, you will need: a thick copybook or a perfectly-organised binder, a copy of the B2-C1 Mémo, the booklet for orals, and lots of energy and curiosity (and a good alarm clock as classes start at 8:00 sharp on Tuesday (MP*) or Friday (PSI*) mornings).
Tous les articles par Elise
Welcome PCSI1
For this year’s English class, you will need: a thick copybook or a perfectly-organised binder, a copy of the B2-C1 Mémo, the booklet for orals, and lots of energy and curiosity (and a good alarm clock as classes start at 8:00 sharp on Wednesday mornings).
Summer Assignment
Work for September 2nd.
Download: Bibliography and summer assignment
Be ready to answer a series of short questions on each book from the list in the document (decade of release, country, short summary, main themes, main character).
Read two books at least and be ready to answer more specific questions about these two books (same as above + more details with a quiz + a choice short essay question).
The test is scheduled for Friday, September 9.
Using the memo in self-assessment
What I do with my students is simply underline their mistakes in a certain colour (orange lately as I found that they spot the mistakes better when it is NOT in the same colour as other remarks I might write on their papers) and jot down the corresponding code from the memo. Their job when I hand in their papers is
to read the rule in the memo and correct the mistake.
When I had reasonable-sized groups (around 25 students), I would take the papers back to have a (very) quick check and reward them with a bonus point. Now that I teach much larger groups (up to 48), I simply allot time in class to do the correction and ask them to make a list of the rules they need to work on.
Burning Bright by Tracy Chevalier
Tracy Chevalier is a very active contemporary author. She’s American but lives in London. She really became well-known with Girl With A Pearl Earring and she did a TED Talk about how she wrote the story which is eye-opening regarding the way a novelist can create a story.
Burning Bright is the story of two teenagers roaming the streets of late 18th century London and encountering William Blake himself.
Tracy Chevalier did a lot of research to complete this work so the mix of reality and fiction is particularly compelling and breathtaking. This novel is a great opportunity to both be entertained and learn quite a few facts about London, Blake and the influence of the French Revolution in the lives of Londoners.
I finished reading Burning Bright just two days ago and would have loved it to go on forever… So, enjoy!